A pool company has three businesses on one truck. The route brings in the same amount every month. Chemicals get sold to the customer on top of it. Pumps, heaters, and filters get replaced when they fail. Florida taxes each of those three differently, and most pool company books do not tell them apart.
Zero Tax keeps the books for pool service and repair companies. Route, chemicals, and repairs are tracked apart. Inventory is real. Bookkeeping, tax preparation, and planning come on one flat monthly fee.
Pool cleaning is a service. Chemicals sold to the customer are a product. A replaced pump attached to the pool is a contractor job. Each has its own sales tax answer and its own margin. One income line hides all of it. We split the three from the invoice forward.
Chlorine and acid get bought by the pallet ahead of summer. The books show a huge expense in April and free chemicals in July. Margins by month are meaningless until the stock is tracked. We keep a simple chemical inventory and adjust it monthly.
A pump bolted to the pool pad is a real property improvement: you pay tax on the pump and charge none on the job. A pump sold in a box for the customer to install is a retail sale with tax on the invoice. Pool companies do both. The invoice template has to know which one it is writing.
pool companies run Skimmer, Pool Brain, or Jobber for the route. Recurring billing is the easy part. The chemical add-ons and the repair tickets are where the accounting goes sideways. We map route billing, chemical sales, and repairs to their own income accounts in QuickBooks Online, track chemical stock, and reconcile the sync every month.
Residential pool service is not subject to sales tax. Commercial pools at hotels, apartment complexes, and HOAs can be, and we check each commercial account before the first invoice. Chemicals sold to the customer are taxable. A pump, heater, or filter installed on the pool follows the contractor rules: tax paid on the part, none charged on the job. Several answers, one truck, so the invoices have to be right.
Route service counts as non-construction work, so workers’ compensation starts at four employees, part-timers included. Equipment installs can change the class code, so tell your carrier what the techs do.
The April 1 tangible return covers chemical tanks, vacuums, and shop tools. Licensed trucks stay off it. The first $25,000 is exempt once the first return is filed.
A service truck over 6,000 pounds is outside the passenger-car depreciation caps. Equipment bought after January 19, 2025 qualifies for 100 percent bonus depreciation. A route purchase is different: the customer list is amortized over 15 years.
Florida has no personal income tax. For a pool route owner, the S corporation question is self-employment tax against a reasonable salary. We run it with your numbers before anyone files.
Greg Neilsen, our tax expert, holds a law degree and a master’s in tax law (LLM). He reviews every return before it is filed.
The books, payroll, and filings run through our team in the Tampa office. The person who closes your month is the person who answers your question. We answer or call back within 24 hours.
More: every trade we serve, landscaping companies, pest control companies, and our services.
One call tells us both whether this fits. Tell us about the pool business: trucks, crews, payroll, and what the books look like today. You leave knowing what Zero Tax would handle and what the flat monthly fee would be. Bookkeeping, tax preparation, and planning come on one number, starting at $750 a month, in writing before any work starts.
No. Residential cleaning and maintenance are not taxable in Florida. Commercial pools can be.
Yes, when you sell them to the customer as a separate charge. Chemicals you use as part of the service are yours, and you paid the tax when you bought them.
Not on the installed job. You pay tax on the pump when you buy it. Sell the pump without installing it and you charge tax on the sale.
On the recurring monthly revenue and how much of it stays after the sale. Clean books that show route revenue on its own line are what a buyer pays for. We keep them that way from the start.
They can. Residential pool service is not taxable. Pools at hotels, apartment complexes, and HOAs can be treated as nonresidential cleaning, which is taxable. We review each commercial account before its first invoice goes out.
One free 15-minute call with Greg. Bring your questions. Leave knowing what Zero Tax would handle for your business and what it would cost.
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